An Attempt at Emacs Humor
One for the cognoscenti only, I'm afraid; others probably won't find it funny.
After a clash with Richard Stallman over his refusal to support Opera, a non-free browser, in FSF Emacs, I thought it was time for some light relief, and posted the following message to gnu.emacs.bug:
From: Reuben Thomas <rrt@sc3d.org>
Subject: Emacs inventing system documentation
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.bug
To: Emacs Bugs <bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 13:00:05 +0100 (CET)
I'm using Emacs 21.3.1, and have noticed that from time to time, when I
use M-x man foo RET to get a man page, the man page is displayed along
with a message "foo man page made up". I don't want Emacs inventing man
pages! I'd rather it just displayed the man page I have installed, or gave
an error if it didn't exist.
I must admit that up to now I haven't noticed any differences between the
pages made up by Emacs and those I get from using the "man" command, but I
haven't checked the details. What if Emacs guesses wrongly about some
arcane corner of bash variable expansion? I could end up wasting hours
trying to track down a bug in a script (and even perhaps waste developers'
time by mistakenly reporting a bug in bash) when the real problem is
Emacs's unwilligness or inability to just look at the real man pages.
Is this just a configuration problem? I think I have my MANPATH and so-on
correctly set up. Looking through apropos I notice:
Man-default-man-entry
Function: Make a guess at a default manual entry.
I'm guessing this function is being run when it shouldn't be.
When I checked the group again a month later, I was gratified to find the following (names removed to protect the unfortunate; look in a Usenet archive if you want to know):
(Are you joking? There's no smiley in your message, so I guess you're not.)
That message is displayed by the Man-fontify-manpage function, whose doc
string says:
| Convert overstriking and underlining to the correct fonts.
| Same for the ANSI bold and normal escape sequences.
"Make up" is used here in the publishing sense: converting markup into
presentation.
So I have to use smilies to indicate humour now? Oops.
And this:
Reuben> I'm using Emacs 21.3.1, and have noticed that from time to
Reuben> time, when I use M-x man foo RET to get a man page, the
Reuben> man page is displayed along with a message "foo man page
Reuben> made up". I don't want Emacs inventing man pages! I'd
Reuben> rather it just displayed the man page I have installed, or
Reuben> gave an error if it didn't exist.
Emacs doesn't invent the man page. M-x man simply runs the 'man'
command on your system, grabs its output, and then add the formatting.
If you don't have a man page for command 'foo', Emacs will give an
error.
Reuben> I must admit that up to now I haven't noticed any
Reuben> differences between the pages made up by Emacs and those I
Reuben> get from using the "man" command,
Because Emacs runs 'man' to get the page contents.
Reuben> but I haven't checked the details.
You should have done so before going out and shouting.
Reuben> What if Emacs guesses wrongly about some arcane corner of
Reuben> bash variable expansion? I could end up wasting hours
Reuben> trying to track down a bug in a script (and even perhaps
Reuben> waste developers' time by mistakenly reporting a bug in
Reuben> bash) when the real problem is Emacs's unwilligness or
Reuben> inability to just look at the real man pages.
The real problem is your unwillingness or inability to just look at
Emac's "man" buffers and compare them with the so called "real man
pages".
Reuben> Is this just a configuration problem?
A configuration in you mind, then.
Reuben> I think I have my MANPATH and so-on correctly set
Reuben> up. Looking through apropos I notice:
Reuben> Man-default-man-entry Function: Make a guess at a default
Reuben> manual entry.
Read further:
Make a guess at a default manual entry.
This guess is based on the text surrounding the cursor.
Now, you tell me what this last sentence means, according to *YOUR*
understand.
Reuben> I'm guessing this function is being run when it shouldn't
Reuben> be.
You're making an even worse guess than Emacs.
But then came the knockout punch:
I thought Reuben's message was meant as a humorous
way to report that the term "made up" was not clear.
So I will change it to "formatted for display".
Why is it funny? Because the only person who saw the joke was none other than the humourless saint whose organisation's aims I had just been questioning in the same public forum: Richard Stallman.
LOL. Something tells me that the people who assumed your ranting was straight-faced are either way too uptight, or only know how to speak American, or both. D
Last updated 2006/09/30